Ski Selection - Photos

A few pictures from this summer's trip:

Panoramic shot of the patio at the Kellerbräu. This is one of my favourite places to spend the evenings in Ried. It is also a local brewery and several hundred years old.

Grillteller. The only thing to order at the Kellerbräu. Grilled pork, chicken, beef, and a hotdog for good measure. Awesome!

Flexing.

The crew!

Arriving at the Salomon factory.

Reviewing the materials with Jean-Marc, the chief engineer.

Skis everywhere.

Deep in the mix!

Ski Selection

I've just returned from our annual ski selection trip in Europe. If you've ever wondered what happens during these trips, I've posted a short video here (click on the link):  Ski Selection - 2013

Here we evaluate a subtle range of characteristics to find high quality skis with the desired attributes.

Lahti - video

Here is a youtube link to check out the video for the sprint finals:

Lahti Skate Sprint - finals


What a race!

Lahti

This morning we head back to Helsinki to fly to Oslo. Our shuttle doesn't pick us up until 11:00, so it was a pretty relaxed morning. We had a chance to sleep in and eat a leisurely breakfast, which is a luxury at the World Cup.

As per usual, I don't really have any pictures of my own from this trip... at least not yet. But here are a bunch that I stole from other people. 

Our accommodations for the week were in the village of Vierumäki. We were not housed in a hotel, but rather in a sport school. This meant that our rooms were sort of dorm style, but they were very comfortable. 

The Lahti stadium with the ski jumps in the background. Ski jumping is a big deal here.

Up close and personal with the big jump.

Skiing in general is a big deal in Europe. This cool helicopter was flying around all week with a TV camera attached.

Saturday was a skate sprint. The race was super short and super flat. The field was really stacked and Sadie and Kikkan both ended up in the same semi-final.

The final was an incredibly exciting race. Given the flat course, Marit and Kikkan basically entered the stadium together and it was a drag race to the finish. Unreal to watch two of the fastest skiers in the world battle it out.

It was a photo finish, but in the end Kikkan took the win. BOOM!

Two of the classiest ladies on the world cup.

Flower ceremony.

It turns out that March 8 is International Women's Day. This is a big deal in Europe and here two of the wax techs give flowers to all of the girls on the team. Needless to say, the girls were pretty excited about this.

Fast Trax does SWC

Fast Trax does SWC

"Or two dudes in skinny tights"

A special guest post by Paul Moore

• Saturday 0900h = A light morning run before a full day of work at Fast Trax Run & Ski Shop.
• Saturday 2400h (yes, midnight) = Arrive at CBC Edmonton to cover a late-breaking house explosion.
• Sunday 0640h = Arrive home. Fall asleep more or less instantaneously.
• Sunday 1000h = On the trails at Strathcona Wilderness Centre, banging off some 6x10min intervals and a 2h ski with Patrick Moore
• Sunday 1500h = Commence napping.
• This truly is living the dream.

The Strathcona Wilderness Centre is about 30 minutes straight east of Edmonton. And today Patrick and I went for one of the most fun ski workouts I've done in a long time. And that's saying something.

The workout itself was 6x10 minutes of intervals. Hard, but not too hard. A solid two hours of skiing - you can see the details from Patrick's Garmin here: 6x10 minutes

You could have raced on the world cup with our skis today. We got the wax exactly right.

A fact, I suppose, that isn't surprising when you consider that Patrick waxes on the world cup circuit. And that two of his athletes won a litte race today called, oh, the world championships.

So, we threw down for about 30km. The master blasters at the SWC thought we were from the Olympics. Nothing new there. (incidentally, we're not even close to being from the Olympics).

The workout done, we got it in our heads to start taking some videos. So we did (see below).

 You can find a more serious one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qktNLxj2Zho

You can find a less serious one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EJkil8lKHM

Sean Rickard and Will Rickard showed up. They're cool.

Then we were done. So Patrick decided to gear down in the chalet. Check his biceps.

All the ladies were impressed. So we had to go outside. Because they wouldn't quit staring at us.

So then we took this picture. Except Patrick didn't like it because "[his] legs look all janked up to high heaven."

(looking at this, I really have no idea how people get the two of us confused ...)

A good day indeed.

A Little More Birkie

Jack declaring, "Let the fun begin!" As Paul later noted, the fun had already begun several hours previous to this.

Figuring stuff out. It's never a good sign when the bench is covered in snow.

Tyla and me working the bench. Paul running defense for us in the foreground. Vern and Les bearing down on Camrose skis in the background.

Birkie

The Birkie was this weekend, which always makes for a crazy week of work leading up to the event. Wet snow, that started to fall about 90 minutes prior to the start of the race, also made for significant craziness. But that is a topic for another post.

On Thursday, CBC came to the shop to do an interview. You can see the article and video here - "Edmonton accountant moonlights as pro wax technician"

Heading out with Jack to test kick wax and glide wax the day before the race.

Contemplating kick wax options for testing at Islet Lake.

The tracks were in amazing shape the day before the race. Too bad they didn't stay like this!

Jack was the test pilot for kick. Here is our test fleet.

I was the test pilot for glide. For skate races I prefer to test by feel. But, classic races take place entirely in the track and I prefer use the speed trap.

Things get busy the day before the Birkie. So I wrote up the testing results and wax recommendation on the 40 minute drive back to the shop. You can see our final recommendation here - Fast Trax Final Birkie Recommendation

Burning powder.

Making race skis with Sean, fueled by coffee and Coke.